400. A "Condensed Statement" which we have in our hands, estimates the total Protestant church accommodation at 200,000, and the number of communicants at 64,800. If we allow 150,000 for the ordinary or occasional attendants at Protestant worship, and 25,000 for the Jewish synagogues, we shall have then from 375,000 to 475,000 of the non-Catholic population who attend no place of religious worship or instruction at all.* The author of the "Startling Facts," who summarily hands over all except the attendants at "Evangelical" churches to the deyil, takes a very gloomy view of the state of things, and considers that "865,600 out of the 950,000 pass to the judgment-seat of Christ WITHOUT THE MEANS OF GRACE;" to be condemned, we are left to infer, because they did not enjoy those means; while those who did enjoy them and failed to pro

vide for the wants of the remainder are to be rewarded.

It must be allowed, however, that he berates them handsomely for their neglect of duty. He says:

"Nor is it intended in these few pages to canvass the question as to the necessity or the expediency, etc., of what is called the up-town removal of so many of the churches (in all 36), first from the lower, and now from the central section of the city. All that can be done is to note the following facts, and leave others to draw their

"The Great Metropolis, a Condensed Statement," gives the Protestant church accommodation at 200,000. "Walks about New York, by

own inference as to their practical effects.

"1. In every instance of such church removal, it has originated in the change of residence of a few of the wealthier families of said church: this, of course, was followed by a diminution of the means of support to the said church. Hence the plea of necessity for its removal; and, making no provision to retain the old church for missionary purposes, the effect has been to scatter by far the larger portion both of the church members and of the congregation to the four winds. For,

been sold, the new location has been "2. The old church property having

selected with a sole view to the accommodation of these families of

wealth, who left it for an up-town palatial residence, and a costly church beyond their means) compatible with edifice has been erected (often largely their tastes. The result of this has been,

3. To place the privileges of the church beyond the reach of the mediocre and lower classes. And this has led to an ignoring of that divinely appointed law of God, "the rich and the poor meet together, the Lord being the maker of them all' (Prov. xxiii. 12). Hence the origin of caste in the churches. Money has been erected into the standard of personal respectability, by which every man is measured; and hence a courting of the favor of the rich, and a despising of the poor.

"Thus the way is prepared to account

the number of attendants at "Evangelical churches" at 324,000. Allowing 10,000 more for other Protestant congregations, and 25,000 for the Jewish synagogues, this leaves 240.000 as the minimum number of the non-Catholic population who attend no place of public worship. It appears to us that it is a large calculation to allow 1,000 attendants to each church, which would give the total of 250.000 church-goers, leaving a remainder of 320,000. All the nonCatholic churches together are capable of accommodating less than 225,000 persons at one time, leaving 375,000 who have not sufficient church-room to accommodate them, if all were disposed to attend regularly. Nevertheless, it does not appear that the majority of the Protestant churches are over-crowded. The mass of the non-church-goers are quite apathetic on the subject. They do not wish to have churches, and probably would not frequent them if they

were built for them free of expense.

of these larger and wealthier churches. A consciousness of self-respect operates largely to deter those who might other from an encounter, whether right or wise repair to them. They shrink wrong, from that invidiousness to which the above principle of the measurement of personal respectability subjects them; and taking human nature as it is, it cannot be otherwise. Hence, finding themselves thus "cut off" from the privileges of the churches, and that by the act of the churches themselves,

they relapse into a state of absolute "neglect of the great salvation.” *

"And when there is taken into the account the neglect of these wealthier churches to make provision for the populations in those sections of the city formerly occupied by them, there is furnished an explanation of the vast disparity between the number of churches compared with the immense population as a whole, which remain unprovided for.

"True, in order to escape the imputation of neglecting the poor of this world' altogether, some of the wealthier churches have established missionary Sabbath schools outside of their own congregations. The principal denominations-the Episcopalians, Methodists, Baptists, Reformed Dutch Church, and Presbyterians, are also doing something in the way of supporting missionary chapels for the poor; but none of them are making provisions for them in a manner or to an extent at all commensurate either with their duty or their means.

“Take, in illustration, a view of the amount of missionary work being done in this city by the large and wealthy presbytery of New York. True, the Brick church; the Fifth avenue church, corner Twenty-first street; the Fifth avenue church, between Eleventh and Twelfth streets; the Presbyterian church in University place, corner Tenth street, and perhaps one or two others, each support, independently of drawing upon the funds raised for domestic missions, a mission Sabbath school and chapel. But out of the moneys contributed annually by the churches connected with the presbytery, amounting to from $12,000 to $15,000, there are only two regularly organized missionary churches connected with that body. These are the German mission church in Monroe street, corner of Montgomery, and the African mission church in the Seventh avenue, each supported at an expense

of $600 per anuum. Nor are the ecclesiastical judicatories of other churches doing much better.

"Is this, then, the way to continue in God's goodness? Writing on this subject, so long ago as 1847, the Rev. Dr. Hodge, the oldest professor occupying a chair in the Princeton Theological Seminary, and the learned and able editor of The Princeton Review,' had used his pen in refuting the statement of those in the Presbyterian Church who affirm that we have already more preachers than we know what to do with,' etc.; and having disposed of that matter, he passes to the subject of the difference in the mode of sustaining and extending the gospel in and by the Presbyterian Church. In reference to the policy adopted by said church to this end, he

says:

1.

"Our system, which requires the minister to rely for his support on the people to whom he preaches, has had the following inevitable results: In our cities we have no churches to which the poor can freely go and feel themselves at home. No doubt, in many of our city congregations there are places in the galleries in which the poor may find seats free of charge; but, as a general thing, the churches are private property. They belong to those who build them, or who purchase or rent the pews after they are built. They are intended and adapted for the cultivated and thriving classes of the community. There may be exceptions to this remark, but we are speaking of a general fact. The mass of the people in our cities are excluded from our churches. The Presbyterian Church is practically, in such places, the church for the upper classes (we do not mean the worldly and the fashionable) of society." And to this Dr. Hodge adds, as the result of the working of our system,' the following:

How this is possible in the case of those who have received the gift of infallible perseverance,

ed from the people to whom he preaches. If, therefore, the people are too few, too sparse, too poor, to sustain a minister, or too ignorant or wicked to appreciate the gospel, THEY MUST GO WITHOUT IT."

Thus far the author of the tract and Dr. Hodge. The statements of the latter are indorsed by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. A Baptist clergyman, writing in the "Memorial Papers," a work which was suppressed after publication, says: "The Church has no conversions and no hold on the masses. The most successful church building is that which excludes the poor by necessity."*

We do not cite these statements in order to make a point against Protestantism from the admissions of its advocates, or to exult over these admissions. We respect our anonymous friend, and the learned and accomplished Princeton divine, for their candor, honesty, and zeal for the religious instruction of the poor. We have nothing in view except an exposition of the real state of things in New York, and are anxious to arrive at facts. Allowing for all errors and exaggerations, and with a perfect willingness to admit everything which can be said to extenuate the evil, we must admit the palpable, undeniable fact, that some hundreds of thousands of our population are either unprovided with the opportunity of attending any form of worship and religious instruction, or are indifferent to the subject. Sunday is to them a mere holiday from work (to many not even that), to be spent in recreation and amusement, if not in something positively bad.

It appears especially that the lower section of the city has been almost entirely given up by Protestants.* There is one very notable and very honorable exception, however, in Trinity church, which has always been the best managed ecclesiastical corporation

A high price will be paid at this office for a copy of The Memorial Papers'.'

*That is, except as a missionary ground.

of all the Protestant religious institutions in our country.

The educational and eleemosynary institutions of New York are on a colossal scale. We will not go into extensive details on this subject, as our topic is properly the religion of the city. It is estimated that there are 144,000 children in New York, of whom 104,000 are at school, and 40,000 growing up without instruction. The poverty, wretchedness, and indifference of parents is more to blame for the condition of that portion not at school, than the want of accommodation.

Hospitals, refuges, asylums of all kinds, abound in the city; as well as dispensaries where medical assistance and medicine can be obtained by the poor gratuitously. There is, beside, a gigantic system of domestic relief and out-door charity under the direction of the municipal authorities. The number of individuals relieved in various ways during the year by these public charities is about 57,000; 30,000 receive gratuitous medical attendance from the dispensaries. For education, $1,000,000 a year is expended by the city, and for public charity, $700,000. The collections made for local purposes of benevolence are estimated at $500,000, and the other collections made in Protestant churches at $500,000 more. The ecclesiastical expenses of maintaining the various churches are estimated at $1,000,000. The great Protestant societies whose headquarters are in New York, receive about $2,700,000 annually. $6,000,000 were distributed among the families of soldiers during the late war. Beside these rough estimates of the vast sums expended by great public organizations, there is no counting the amount of individual contributions, often on a large scale, to colleges, etc., and the sums expended in benevolent works by private societies or individuals.

There can be no doubt that the peo

This includes also Catholic schools and colleges. The estimate is too small, however, and another gives 208,000 as the number going to school.